After years of mulling concepts like attentiveness, involvement, and engagement as a means of measuring the impact media buys have on advertising effectiveness, Madison Avenue is officially embracing "engagement," as its new media planning metric - one that could replace the vaunted concept of "frequency" as the multiplier in most media plans. But a panel of advertisers and agency executives discussing the move Wednesday during a closing panel session at the Association of National Advertisers' 2005 Marketing Accountability Forum in New York had a difficult time defining exactly what the new metric would be, how it would be applied, or ... ...Read the whole story

While some radio broadcasters have been wary about the potential impact of portable people meters (PPM), Arbitron's new means of monitoring radio listenership, could lift radio revenue far beyond its current level and provide the industry with more reliable data than is now available, a study presented by the Radio Advertising Bureau concluded. ...Read the whole story

In what could be a bellwether for traditional media outlets like TV migrating to more interactive, Web-like platforms, consumers are spending more time visiting content and communications-related sites online, while decreasing the proportion of time they spend with so-called e-commerce sites. At least that's the conclusion of the June edition of an ongoing tracking study released Wednesday by the Online Publishers Association. The OPA, of course, represents the kind of traditional media content companies - big papers like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal - who presumably are driving that shift. ...Read the whole story

The Independent Task Force on Television Measurement, a group organized by Nielsen Media Research and New York Congressman Charles Rangel, Wednesday urged the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and the House Commerce Committee to decline legislation that would require new oversight of TV ratings. ...Read the whole story